The invention relates generally to aircraft ejection seats, and more particularly to means for positioning and restraining the arms of a crewmember in such seats during ejection.
Upon ejection from an aircraft, a crewmember is subjected to an extremely high relative windstream which may cause his limbs to flail, resulting in severe injuries. For example, of the ejection related injuries reported during the Vietnam conflict, 64% were due to a flailing of the crewmember's arms (see "Prototype Development Passive, Seat-Mounted, Limb Retention System", Naval Air Development Center Report No. NADC-79201-60, May 1979 Accession No. AD-A076 331). Such injuries hamper the crewmember's attempts to control his parachute and to release it after descent onto land or espcecially into water.
In order to reduce these flail injuries, various devices have been proposed which utilize any of numerous combinations of straps, nets or bladders to position and restrain the arms of a crewmember in an aircraft ejection seat during ejection. However, such prior art devices have not been fully satisfactory for a variety of reasons. For example, many such devices have been "active" in that they impose additional tasks on the crewmember in order for them to be readied. These devices may be improperly attached or ignored entirely by the crewmember, rendering them ineffective or causing injury to the crewmember during their deployment. Other devices, such as U.S. Pat. No. 4,359,200 to Brevard et al or U.S. Pat. No. 4,215,835 to Wedgwood, require a separate system to deploy their restraining means, making them more complex.